The Dark Side Of A Wonder Drug-a Selected Collection Of Testimony On T :: essays research papers

The Dark placement of a Wonder Drug-A Selected Collection of Testimony on the Safetyof methylphenidate"We give our children every day, yet we punish adults for taking speed,"stated a concerned parent(methylphenidate Zone). A trip to the principals part usedto mean titanic trouble. These days, more kids are showing up in the school officejust to get their midday dose of Ritalin. Ritalin, the drug used to parcel outhyperactivity in children, is being seized on by a generation upset aboutcontrolling inappropriate behavior. But around doctors think Ritalin is beingprescribed to children who are simply having trouble in school. The versesuggest they lay down good reason to apprehension. The number of prescriptions for Ritalin change magnitude four-fold from 1990 to 1995, making the stimulant one of the mostprescribed drugs in the country. No one knows exactly whats behind the surge inRitalin use, just experts speculate its due to everything from increasedawareness of at tention disorders in schools to teachers and parents befittingless tolerant of unruly behavior.Some local school offices have become virtual noon-time pharmacies. At oneOttawa-area board of education, the number of medications shell out to studentsby office administrators has increased 20 per cent over the ago 18 months. Agood chunk of those pills are Ritalin. "We always worry that were a half-stepaway from large(p) slightlyone the wrong dosage," says John Beatty, the boardsoverseer of school operations(Ritalin Boy). "In certain school systemstheres been a teacher who has seen it ply and theyll start suggesting it asan option for all children who are acting out," verbalise Linda Budd, a St. Paul,Minn., psychologist who has written the book Living With the Active/Alert Child."Weve got some teachers we call "Ritalin bullies - hes not paying attentionto me so he needs Ritalin"(Ritalin Zone). Marcia Ruberg, a school psychologistin Cherry pitcher (N.J. ) School District, said the number of children takingRitalin varies greatly from dissever to class, depending on "the teachers beliefsystem"(Ritalin). At some schools, children as junior as seven are asked to taketheir Ritalin themselves. The little rich pills have become so common in schoolyards that some kids are reportedly selling their spare Ritalin to friends, whotake it in the hope of getting a buzz. "Every parent wants their child to be atthe top of the class," says Dr. Andre Cote, clinical director of the ChildrensMental Health discourse Center at the Royal Ottawa Hospital. "What we might be perceive is that people are trying to improve their kids performance by givingthem medication"(Health Ritalin).Others worry that Ritalin has become an easy answer for officious families